D.G. Martin

“Were you a part of the Army that made the Indians leave their homes?” David, my five-year-old grandson, had been learning about American Indians in his preschool. He knew that I had been in the Army many years ago. So, of course, he wondered if my “many years ago” coincided with this and other incidents […]

Come on and go to Norlina with me! Before you ask where Norlina is, and why should you want to go there, let me explain: I have agreed to write a new book for UNC Press, an expended and updated version of an earlier one I wrote several years ago, about North Carolina family-owned, home-cooking […]

If you are looking for an interesting book for springtime reading, I have four suggestions: A cookbook that will be fun to read; A book of stories from one of North Carolina’s rising stars; The story of a ’57 Chevy and its complicated, troubled and fascinating 13th owner who took it to Moyock in Currituck […]

Last week, two men claimed they had been robbed of about $5 million worth of gold bars they were transporting along I-95 in Wilson County. According to their story, when they pulled over on I-95 to fix their truck or attend to an illness, three armed men appeared, took the gold, tied them up, and […]

It is a dream come true for me. A mixture of North Carolina public affairs and North Carolina books. Only rarely does a prominent North Carolina public figure write a book that promises to be a success and maybe even a bestseller. Now it is happening twice. First, there is North Carolina’s Secretary of Transportation […]

What is it about a 1957 Chevrolet? Like The New York Times offering on its store page a “1957 Bel Air 50th Anniversary Edition $99.95. Numbered, limited edition of 1,957.” Before you order, let me tell you about the North Carolina connection to the car. Make that “connections,” as there are more than one. First, […]

Each February we celebrate Valentine’s Day and Black History Month. There is an important, but seldom (if ever) mentioned, connective link. Here it is briefly: Valentine’s Day’s symbol is a heart, and an African American doctor performed the first reported open-heart surgery. That doctor’s story is the first chapter of N.C. State University professor Rob […]

Five years ago, when the University of North Carolina board of governors was searching for a candidate to replace Erskine Bowles, I wrote in this column, “The Board will be looking for the new president who has two critical qualifications: A good feel for North Carolina’s traditions and the state’s needs, and, Successful experience at […]

“He’s got great job security,” someone asserted a few years ago when UNC President Tom Ross’s job first seemed to be at risk after the party affiliation of UNC’s board of governors changed. He explained, “Look, if the board fires him, he will run for governor—not something they would welcome.” Now that the board has […]

“Fired with enthusiasm.” Last week I was reminded of that quote attributed to Clark Kerr, the legendary president of the multi-campus University of California. It is what he said when, shortly after Ronald Reagan’s election as governor in 1966, university regents ousted Kerr. He joked that he left the university the same way he came […]

Is my weekly column supposed to be about books or about politics? I get this question sometimes from editors and readers. In fact, one newspaper editor stopped using my column about a year ago. He wrote that he enjoyed my book columns, but “when I get a column and I have to read it to […]

North Carolina loves its connections to the production of movies and television programs. But our political decision-makers did not love that connection enough to appropriate sufficient funds or extend tax credits to persuade movie and television producers to site their programs in North Carolina. That decision in the last legislative session will surely be revisited […]

We can’t read them all. It is what people say to me when I start talking about four important North Carolina related books that UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch will feature in January. Even so, I say, you should know something about each of them. For instance, Bookwatch kicks off its new season with one of […]

They just could not bring themselves to shake hands with their former enemies. A few weeks ago on the anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, we remembered earlier reunions when some American servicemen met the Japanese pilots who had attacked them so many years earlier. Some Americans shook hands with their former enemies […]

“What is our tolerance for brutality?” A minister asked this question from the pulpit Sunday morning and suggested that his listeners consider recent news stories relating to “enhanced interrogation” procedures by the Central Intelligence Agency. If we think these enhanced tactics or torture could be justified on the grounds that they were effective in providing […]

“Hey, come here, will you? Quick. The dead stuff is over here. Let me show you.” These are the thoughts of Solo, a German shepherd that loves his job. His job is finding the lost remains of dead humans. These dog thoughts have been translated by N.C. State writing professor Cat Warren in What the […]

One of the state’s big newspapers almost lost a subscriber last week when she received a notice increasing the annual subscription rate by almost $100. It was not so much the amount of the increase that put her in a cancellation mode; rather, it was some fine print at the bottom of the notice. “Subscribers […]

While Martin Harmon was in North Carolina last week to promote his new book, Charles “Lefty” Driesell: A Basketball Legend, he dropped a signed copy by UNC basketball coach Roy Williams’ office. Harmon meant his gift only as an expression of his and Coach Driesell’s admiration for Williams and his accomplishments. Although Harmon did not […]

“I am mad as hell and I want my state back.” Former UNC-Wilmington Chancellor Jim Leutze wanted to use this phrase as the title for his new book about modern North Carolina history and politics. Eventually, he settled on another provocative title, Entering North Carolina: Set Clocks Back 100 Years, which the Charlotte Observer book […]

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